Israel in turmoil over bill allowing Jews and Arabs to be segregated

[Eugene]

Source: The Guardian

Israel in turmoil over bill allowing Jews and Arabs to be segregated

Law will ‘reveal ugly face of ultranationalist Israel in all its repugnance’, professor says

Oliver Holmes in Jerusalem
Sun 15 Jul 2018 12.19 BST

Israel is in the throes of political upheaval as the country’s ruling party seeks to pass legislation that could allow for Jewish-only communities, which critics have condemned as the end of a democratic state.

For the past half-decade, politicians have been wrangling over the details of the bill that holds constitution-like status and that Benjamin Netanyahu wants passed this month.

The proposed legislation would allow the state to “authorise a community composed of people having the same faith and nationality to maintain the exclusive character of that community”.

In its current state, the draft would also permit Jewish religious law to be implemented in certain cases and remove Arabic as an official language.

-snip-

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jul/15/israel-turmoil-bill-allowing-jews-arabs-segregated

[oberliner]

1. Controversial 'segregation' clause dropped from Jewish nation-state bill

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Education Minister Naftali Bennett reached an agreement Sunday on a key change to the nation-state bill that will remove a controversial clause sanctioning housing discrimination on the basis of ethnicity or religion, and replace it with a new one celebrating “Jewish settlement” in general terms.

Clause 7B of the Likud-sponsored legislation, which the government hopes to have approved by the end of the month, previously would have allowed the state to “authorize a community composed of people having the same faith and nationality to maintain the exclusive character of that community.”

Politicians, legal advisers and others have warned that that version of the so-called Jewish State bill is discriminatory and could cast a dark shadow over Israel in the international arena.

In a bid to gain wider support for the bill and quiet its vociferous critics, Bennett had proposed language removing the clause and replace it with a call for strengthening the Jewish presence in predominantly Arab Israeli areas.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/netanyahu-bennett-agree-on-softened-jewish-nation-state-bill-language/

[brush]

2. Apartheid? How shameful.

[bitterross]

3. Sounds like real estate/HOA-type agreements from the 50's in US

That sounds a lot like the terminology used by racists and anti-Semites in the US when they were trying to maintain all-white, all-Christian neighborhoods.

[Chipper Chat]

4. All Arabs out of town by 6pm.

Arabs will become three fifths of a person. Shameful.